I went to Pulino’s with Nami before a show on Saturday night. They buy a pig and half split from Heritage, so I am on the phone with them every week.  They have a lot of meat curing and aging as well as whole animals that they are working with, and they make a lot of products with this like sausage, lardo, and cured meats.  It was great to get a tour and get to eat there.  The meal was full of big flavors and top-quality ingredients.

We had beet salad with feta and fennel and green olives.  For pasta, we had semolina gnocci with a chicken ragu that had been baked in the oven.  They were large gnocci, shaped like big marbles and they had been cooked in a cast iron pan in the oven atop the ragu.  Then we had a porchetta pizza with fennel and Heritage pork, surprisingly big with a very thin crust.  Everything was excellent including the gin fizz I had to start the meal, and we left very satisfied.

Then Nate gave me a tour of their walk-in and cured meats.  Click the photo or click here to see a slideshow.  While you are watching the slideshow you can see captions by clicking on the photo.

Thanks to chef Nate Appleman for getting us the tour — he wanted me to put the word out that they are serving weekend brunch there so consider this official notice.